Hi, Dear Dev. Could you please add a friend system in this game? Many of us usually wanna to chat with each other. However we can only try global chat. But Global chat usually has lots of people talking there and the lines rolling fast. It is really hard to notice whom is talking to you. I think it will be better if you can put some functions that we could send PMs to friends or other great features into this game. Thanks for your attention!BTW can you add Chinese language in game system?

There have been hints of a friend system being introduced at some point (Eg there is a grayed out button on a player's profile that looks like it could be an "add friend" button)

Also in regards to Chinese language, currently chat doesn't support anything other than the roman alphabet (a b c etc). And while I don't know if this applies to the game text as a whole, the devs have said that they DO want to add more languages in the future, so hopefully Chinese will come with those.

Or just use a dedicated software for doing that (Discord). I know that it's horrible because of the game freezing when you focus on another software, but it should be corrected when devs will move to Unity.

It's just that if devs spend their precious time to develop chat or whatever communication which cannot be as good as a dedicated one, it means they will have less time for interesting features...

It's just that if devs spend their precious time to develop chat or whatever communication which cannot be as good as a dedicated one, it means they will have less time for interesting features...

I mostly agree, but try to consider it on a new angle: Social features increases the interest of being on-line on the game even if the users are not actively playing. People already have something in common, the game, and as the experiences are exchanged the usual result is very positive and this positivity is also projected to the game or company itself. It's a good thing to dedicate some time/money into it because there is a good return in the end.

We can take as example the general "good vibe" of our community here on the forums, the dedication and attention the devs showed by talking directly to us by taking our feedback and all, the people we met here, or on our guilds, are also great in general. So it wouldn't be hard to imagine how these positive impacts helps on the busine$$ as well. Some of us dedicated some money as a form to say: "Thank you for the experience." as well as gaining some in-game rewards and such, but i'm sure the number of sales would be much inferior if the social aspects wouldn't have some attention.

Yes, I agree. But it does not mean that the social features should be embedded in the game.And you took an excellent example: this forum that you use outside the game. So I believe that using a Discord server dedicated to GoW or an in-game social feature is the same in terms of dependancy/hype/"good vibe" to/for GoW.

Today if you want to go to the in-game chat, you block your fight. So devs need to do a better chat where you can do both maybe with a dedicated windows for the chat and fuse it on the fight screen: how much time it's going to take? And to do again everything when they jump to Unity? Do you prefer to have a mini-game or a chat which is not be as nice as dedicated ones (Discord or whatever)? And you see how much bugs the current chat has, it's a total burden for the devs and more complex the chat will become, more bugs will needed to fixed...

Yes, I agree. But it does not mean that the social features should be embedded in the game.

But if they are embedded the positive projection and association is much easier.

turintuor:

Today if you want to go to the in-game chat, you block your fight.

Sometimes people won't search for fights or they will just relax after a long period of PVP/Explore grind.

turintuor:

And you took an excellent example: this forum that you use outside the game. So I believe that using a Discord server dedicated to GoW or an in-game social feature is the same in terms of dependancy/hype/"good vibe" to/for GoW.

Both things are complementay to each other rather than the opposite, you certainly is aware that the number of players registred on the forums is nothing compared to the number of players that don't want/need to register at all. So, the in-game chat is a commodity as well as a basic tool for the very first social experience in the game community. Then, if interested, people will follow/migrate to other channels of communication such as the forums or Discord and others. Also you must remember that the game runs on phones, tablets and such, so having the chat inside the game is again a commodity.

turintuor:

Today if you want to go to the in-game chat, you block your fight. So devs need to do a better chat where you can do both maybe with a dedicated windows for the chat and fuse it on the fight screen: how much time it's going to take? And to do again everything when they jump to Unity?

Sure, the current chat is not perfect, but i think they haven't made any change to the social features because they already knew that making it on Unity would probably be better/more productive.

turintuor:

Do you prefer to have a mini-game or a chat which is not be as nice as dedicated ones (Discord or whatever)? And you see how much bugs the current chat has, it's a total burden for the devs and more complex the chat will become, more bugs will needed to fixed...

As i said, one thing doesn't need to exclude the other. That's all.Once the whole game is ported into Unity, they will probably be able to work faster/better on some social features interfaces and they'll work better/faster as well on new content such as mini-games and new mechanics as a whole.

But if they are embedded the positive projection and association is much easier.

Maybe, maybe not. Of course, it sounds strange that devs told you "you want a chat? Use Discord." But I think it is a clever move, better than spending money to do a chat from scratch.

Ivar:

Sometimes people won't search for fights or they will just relax after a long period of PVP/Explore grind.

Yes and? They can just Alt+Tab and chat about GoW on Discord.

Ivar:

Both things are complementay to each other rather than the opposite,

I believe that using Discord is also complementary.

Ivar:

you certainly is aware that the number of players registred on the forums is nothing compared to the number of players that don't want/need to register at all.

Surely, we can easily know that. But what is the number of players who want to speak in the in-game chat?

Ivar:

So, the in-game chat is a commodity as well as a basic tool for the very first social experience in the game community.

Should the forum or GoW server on Discord become the "very first social experience" if this chat not exist?

Ivar:

Also you must remember that the game runs on phones, tablets and such, so having the chat inside the game is again a commodity.

Is the chat convenient for them? It should be easy to switch from one app to another, no?

Ivar:

Sure, the current chat is not perfect, but i think they haven't made any change to the social features because they already knew that making it on Unity would probably be better/more productive.

We are talking about programmation and this feature is really different from the other ones. It means that you have to maintain this code, fix it and of course write it. Now Sirrian has to choose what his team is going to add in the game with the idea to attract/keep players to make dollars. In all the lifetime of the chat, it was quite buggy and so, I'm not sure if his presence in the game was so much positive... So do really players are going to show their appreciation with dollars because of the chat? Not me. If I do it, it will due because of a game feature, not a social one.

Ivar:

As i said, one thing doesn't need to exclude the other. That's all.

Of course it is. If devs spend 3 months to improve a chat, they could not work on another feature during this time.

Ivar:

Once the whole game is ported into Unity, they will probably be able to work faster/better on some social features interfaces and they'll work better/faster as well on new content such as mini-games and new mechanics as a whole.

It is not because they are going to use Unity that everything will change. You need to write/test source codes. But maybe you're right and there is already done chat in Unity. I'm not an expert .

Now about guilds, this chat is not useful at all: you cannot keep informations, you cannot post link, pictures or videos. What I need/want for a in-game chat is what Discord provides which will ask an enormous time for devs to do that.

If you check some other F2P games, with bigger playerbases and communities than GoW, you will notice that these games also have chat systems.

If it such a pain to code and fix and a waste of time/money and effort why it's so present in other F2P models?

Is it possible that all those developers, on other companies, failed to understand how useless an in-game chat is as well as investing in social features?

Maybe they just been using Unity from the start and the plataform is much more stable for this kind of feature. I play another game with three dedicated servers Pioneer, Global and Asian and in almost six months (the time i've playing) the chat on all servers where broken just once... That's because they are using Unity...

So, i believe social features shouldn't be discarded at all, but yes game content should take priority.

On another game i started, also a Match-3 kind of game with troops, there is no chat at all and the whole experience is quite... dry... Well, i still login and collect free stuff, play a few levels, just to increase my collection of troops, but that's all. Unlike GoW it doesn't provides me such a good experience where i'm inclined to invite friends into it, to participate in the community and more. It's not a bad game, but GoW is better specially because of it's social features doing their work as i explained before.

So, as i said, once GoW is ported into Unity things should be much more easy to accomplish. I did a quick search and Unity has a few "starting kits" with demos of games and features with open code, one including basic in-game chat, so it certainly helps to spare a few days of work...

turintuor:

Now about guilds, this chat is not useful at all: you cannot keep informations, you cannot post link, pictures or videos. What I need/want for a in-game chat is what Discord provides which will ask an enormous time for devs to do that.

On that i agree, but the game chat is not the best solution on communication, but still a good thing to have rather than not. So i don't think it would need much more improvement, just more stability and this shouldn't take much time.

If you check some other F2P games, with bigger playerbases and communities than GoW, you will notice that these games also have chat systems.

If it such a pain to code and fix and a waste of time/money and effort why it's so present in other F2P models?

Is it possible that all those developers, on other companies, failed to understand how useless an in-game chat is as well as investing in social features?

Just because other games did it doesn't make it a good idea, even if those games are bigger, Further, I have yet to see an in-game chat system that rivals a standalone chat system like discord. Quite simply, given a fixed amount of programming resources, choosing to invest in anything other than core competency when there are superior focused products freely available and widely used is probably not the best use of resources. And even an improved in-game system would be missing a bunch of features I'd want that are available in other systems, so it wouldn't keep me in-game anyway. I hope the devs keep focusing on new features like GW or a crafting system, things I can't get anywhere else

Social features have their own merits and it's clear that it's a good business model as they stand, reaching many other games provides enough proof that it's a good return of all resources invested.

Once finished they don't need a lot of renewing, just stability, so finishing it properly, be it the chat or some "Friend's System" with useful and interactive features, and it's done. No need to worry about slowing down new content over a long period of time.

I don't disagree that their are benefits to social. However, I fail to see an advantage of in-game vs. a focused, developed third party platform that would warrant its creation. Why do you think in-game so much significantly better (or is "other companies did it" the sole justification)?

Why do you think in-game so much significantly better (or is "other companies did it" the sole justification)?

I just don't see things from a single perspective. I'm not a game developer, but i have enough intelligence to start wondering why some things are one way and not another and also make some considerations based on my experience.

On my superior education i could see this sort of "Positive Association" being used on a Five Star Restaurant, just to mention something outside the game's sphere of knowledge. So we had this discipline about management and while visiting the said restaurant, the owner (and manager) explained that he decided to have a huge structure (space and staff) to be able to receive events with his buffet and services.

Someone asked "Why?". "If he could opt out to "deliver his buffet" transporting the food and staff on vans, why chose to have such huge hall that is empty for the most part of some seasons?"

He then asked: "Can someone guess why?"

After some brief silence i said: "If you bring your food and service to some event, the experience is mostly tied to the event, it's like the organizers would reap all the benefits of your good work. If you bring the event to your restaurant you have much more control over what is happening and "your share" of the said experience is bigger this way. The people will surely remember that the event was amazing and all, but they certainly will have a big impression of your restaurant that, otherwise, wouldn't be so strong if you just deliver your services."

Of course, this is not a model that can be applied to every business, depends of your budget. But every "wannabe Big-Boss-Company" must set some high standards and sometimes use their time and resources on things that not everyone will understand the use and consider it a "waste"...

The people will surely remember that the event was amazing and all, but they certainly will have a big impression of your restaurant that, otherwise, wouldn't be so strong if you just deliver your services."

Interesting analogy, but this comment highlights my thinking. If what you develop is awesome, everybody will remember. But if what you develop is mediocre, or "barely good enough", people remember that too. I've played numerous games which have built in chat and social features, and have yet to find any that matches the features or stability of mature third-party solutions (discord, line, pal, Facebook, etc.). In every case, teams/clans/guilds required use of a third party system to overcome some deficiency with the in-game system.

Interesting analogy, but this comment highlights my thinking. If what you develop is awesome, everybody will remember. But if what you develop is mediocre, or "barely good enough", people remember that too. I've played numerous games which have built in chat and social features, and have yet to find any that matches the features or stability of mature third-party solutions (discord, line, pal, Facebook, etc.). In every case, teams/clans/guilds required use of a third party system to overcome some deficiency with the in-game system.

I already addressed this perspective here:

Ivar:

So, the in-game chat is a commodity as well as a basic tool for the very first social experience in the game community. Then, if interested, people will follow/migrate to other channels of communication such as the forums or Discord and others.

Not having a chat or more social features could potentially do more harm than spending some time/resources developing it.

beanie42:

Bigger isn't always better, sometimes it's just bigger...

But to stay big, and prosper, a company shouldn't be closed minded about the many forms of positive experiences they can provide to their clients.

But, you are free to still disagree with me, the OP, with GoW's developers and developers of all the other games/companies... I'm just trying to provide another perspective, it's up to the reader(s) how they evaluate it.